MAP24: No Escape (Doom 64)

MAP24: No Escape is the 24th map of Doom 64, designed by Randy Estrella. It uses the music track "Dark Echo", also heard in MAP10: The Bleeding. The central portion of the level is a massive arena filled with nightmare imps, mancubi, lost souls and cyberdemons. The player has to find a switch which will release twin cyberdemons from a large cage (if the player is on Watch Me Die skill level). Once all cyberdemons are dead, the level will automatically end. This challenging map serves as the penultimate level of the game's single-player campaign, as the next level is, where the player will face the Mother Demon and her final hordes.

Walkthrough
You begin in a central elevated loft where you'll find a shotgun and several medkits lining the perimeter, and in the middle of the room is a switch that opens the four doors to the outside. Choose any door to exit the room and prepare to fight the hoards of nightmare imps, a few mancubi, and the initial first of three cyberdemons.

This map does not have a traditional exit switch. The only way to pass is to kill the three cyberdemons in-map. As stated before, there is one out in the open and two in the giant cage located due-north of your starting point. (Note: On easier difficulties, there is only one cyberdemon to kill that is already in the cage.)

You will need to open the cage to fight the two cyberdemons by jumping down into the red radiation pit due-east of the cage, then into the alcove where nightmare imps lurk. Blast through them, and go through the portal which will take you to a fortress-like section that has a green radiation pit in the center with an armor pickup. If you pickup the armor, three sections of the back wall of the room will drop down to unleash a hoard of lost souls on you, but once you dispatch them, you can find health and ammo in the alcoves. Then run over to the open bunker-like protrusion and jump over to the adjacent cutout to the right and activate the switch. Then jump down and head for the red radiation pit again, go back through the alcove to the portal to enter the fortress-like section again, but this time, go into the newly opened alcove and activate the switch, which will finally open the cage. After killing all three cyberdemons, the map will end automatically.

Other things to note about this map are that after you kill every monster in the initial hoard, some columns will drop down behind one of the vertically oscillating platforms where one of the mancubi were positioned. A group of lost souls will appear and some health and ammunition can be found there. At the top of one of the outside elevators is a switch that drops columns to give you access to a spiraled section of the map. This spiraled section surrounds a green radiation pit with pain elementals lying in wait. At the end of the spiral is a soulsphere which when picked up will trigger the appearance of three mancubi on the ledge above. In the room with all the columns, one has a switch which when activated, temporarily lowers the furthermost column from the room entrance. On top is a super shotgun which when picked up, triggers the appearance of many sergeants whose positions throughout the columns makes for a dangerous situation if they are not dispatched quickly.

Enemies
Shotgun guy, Nightmare imp, Lost soul, Pain elemental, Mancubus, Cyberdemon

Items
Backpack, Armor, Mega-armor, Soulsphere, Mega Sphere (Easier Difficulties)

Secrets

 * A wall in spiral area contains plasma gun and energy ammo.
 * The square column with switches has a bare side that lowers a special column containing a backpack.
 * When at the top of the elevator near the rocket launcher totem, shoot at the black column behind it using a hitscan weapon to open a niche in the red radiation pit containing a BFG9000.

Routes and tricks
Stay on top of the outside elevators and let the cyberdemons get close to you, then use a powerful weapon like the super shotgun, BFG9000, or the Unmaker to take them out. While higher up, the cyberdemons' rockets will not reach you, although you should expect to take some splash damage.

Using the teleporters between one of the outside elevators and the adjacent platform makes a great evasion tactic when fighting the monster hoard, however it's risky when using it against the cyberdemons due to the speed and very high damage factor of their rockets.

You can also circle-strafe around the cyberdemons and shoot them with a hitscan type weapon (like the super shotgun or chaingun).

It is also possible to shoot the two cyberdemons inside the cage through the bars using the Unmaker after destroying the first loose cyberdemon. Any additional beams of the Unmaker earned from Demon Keys will usually autoaim into the gap when shots are timed well.